Joy Ride
by MagicMusic7
Summary: When Nikola Asenov gets paired up with Demitri Popescu for a project, he doesn't think much of it. But when he meets him, he realizes that most people think he's weird because of his looks and interests. Nikola decides to befriend him. What he doesn't realize is how much he will help Demitri by being his friend. Reviews and Constructive Criticism greatly appreciated!
1. Chapter 1

Joy Ride

Nikola Asenov couldn't believe how stupid this assignment was. In his Freshman Composition class, he had to interview another member of the class and then write a profile of him or her. He hated writing and hated interviewing people. He was a science major, specifically Natural Science, not an English major. But no, this class was required of all freshmen in order to graduate. Just as he had thought of a loophole, his professor said any person who uses a Facebook profile instead of interviewing their partner would receive a zero. So there went Nikola's chances of getting out of doing this. He sighed and looked around the lounge where he was waiting for his partner.

"Hello! Are you Nikola?"

Nikola looked up to see his partner. He was wearing what looked like to be a long trench coat with a hat that had three ribbons hanging down from it. He had red eyes and shaggy blond hair. Nikola then realized he was staring.

"Um…yes. And you must be Demitri?"

The boy or Demitri nodded.

"Okay," said Nikola "I don't know how comfortable you are with talking about yourself, but I'm certainly not."

"It depends on who I'm with." said Demitri. "I usually have to trust the person first."

"Well, I hope you trust me!" joked Nikola.

Demitri just looked sad.

"Hopefully." He said.

"Would you like to interview me first then?" Nikola asked.

"Sure."

As they go through the questions, Nikola gets more comfortable talking about himself with Demitri looking decidedly more uncomfortable.

"Who's your roommate?" Demitri asks, not looking at Nikola.

"Eduard Von Bock...Do you know him?"

"No."

"Who's yours?"

"Alfred Jones."

He made a face as he said that.

Nikola looked confused.

"You don't like him?"

"No."

"How come?"

Demitri sighed.

"Oh I don't know, maybe because the refrigerator I brought is currently full of liquor, there's cigarettes under his bed and he snores."

"So he's a drinker, partier, smoker…um….."

"Basically the complete opposite of me. Which I'm fine with but the whole "illegal stuff" thing is just crossing the line."

"I'm sorry."

Demitri shrugged.

"So," he said "What's your roommate like?"

Nikola thought for a moment.

"He practically lives in the room." He said finally.

"Doesn't he already live there?" asked Demitri.

"No, I mean he's always there. Like if he's not eating or in class, he is almost always in the room."

"Oh."

"He's okay though…a little odd but he's not as bad as Alfred sounds."

Demitri sighed.

"I've tried getting a room switch but Arthur, my RA says that all the rooms are full. Unless Alfred goes into a triple…but who would want that?"

A silence lapsed between the two.

"So," said Nikola "I'll ask you your questions."

"Okay."

Over the course of interviewing Demitri, Nikola had seriously considered a partner switch. Apparently, he was a descendent of vampires (that would explain the fangs), originally from Transylvania, Romania, huge fantasy fan and a sorcerer who practiced magic (which he had told Nikola not to mention at all and would not explain why). This had made Nikola slightly uneasy but he couldn't switch partners. Demitri had originally been partnered with a girl named Elizabeta Hedervary but apparently it didn't work out between them. So Nikola was stuck with him.

At 8:00 the next day, Nikola sat in his chemistry lab, waiting for his partner Roderich Edelstein to come. He liked Roderich, he was much more responsible than some of these other, so called pre med majors who missed lab and handed in homework late.

"Hello Nikola, how are you today?" asked Roderich who just walked in.

"Tired, but okay, how are you?"

"Same."

They got to work mixing the chemicals.

"So, who's your partner for the freshman comp interview?" Roderich asked.

"Demitri Popescu. Do you know him?"

Roderich made a face.

"He went to my high school. Our parents were and still are friends and tried to get us to be friends. It didn't work. I seriously don't understand him. "

"Really?"

"Yeah, we just don't get along. Never have. You probably can imagine how I felt when I found out we would be going to the same college."

Roderich laughed.

"It wasn't good."

"How come?"

Roderich sighed.

"Well, there was the whole sorcery thing and the whole vampire thing as well. I don't know, I got along with his parents fine but he was a whole different story. I wouldn't get too close to him if I were you. He isn't very good with people. I would know from experience."

Nikola motioned for him to continue which Roderich did.

"There was this event that happened after we discovered we were both coming here. Our parents really wanted us to get along, most likely so Demitri would be going in already knowing one of his classmates and maybe we would even be friends. So we went to dinner and I guess he had a bad reaction because he basically camped out in the bathroom for the rest of the time. It was rude."

"Maybe he just got sick. That's understandable."

Roderich considered this.

"It is. What I'm trying to tell you is that he can't be trusted."

It hit Nikola why Elizabeta wouldn't work with Demitri.

"And I suppose you told Elizabeta that and convinced her to switch partners?"

Roderich and Elizabeta had been dating since October.

Roderich laughed.

"Actually she said she didn't want to work with him because he's weird. Which I agree with!"

Nikola couldn't believe what he was hearing. So Roderich held a grudge against Demitri over an understandable accident and had Elizabeta join him in this? That wasn't right. He felt bad for Demitri coming into school with someone who didn't like him. He decided he would try to get to know Demitri better so he would have a friend. Something told him that he didn't have very many friends.

The two worked in almost silence on the lab and when it was finally over, Nikola went to find Demitri. He remembered Alfred saying that Demitri wasn't in the room very often. He wondered where he could be. Maybe outside? Where would a vampiric sorcerer go to hide from those who hated him? Nikola was determined to find out.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Nikola had been looking for Demitri for almost a half an hour and still hadn't found him. He had persuaded Alfred to give him a copy of Demitri's schedule under the pretext of needing to work with him on the Freshman Comp project and it said he wasn't in class right now. So where could he be? He wasn't in the dorm or student center. Nikola sighed. He had to be on campus unless he went home but Alfred said he could only go home if he was sick. As Nikola turned the corner and scanned the huge field behind the academic buildings, he saw a very familiar looking hat. _Demitri. _He ran over.

"Hey Demitri."

Demitri looked up with suspicion.

"Hey." He said and turned back to his Kindle.

"Can I ask you something?"

"As long as it's not about me being a vampire."

"No, it's not that. It's Roderich."

Demitri stiffened.

"So he told you I'm a loser with no friends? And you believe him? I don't blame you; he has friends, popularity and influence. And I have none of that and am perfectly happy by myself. So you can go away."

Nikola sighed. He felt bad for Demitri having to put his guard up wherever he went.

"No, I wanted to ask you what he was like in high school and what he was like that time when you went out. I'm not sure if I believe him."

Demitri looked at Nikola, searching his face as if he could detect whether he was lying or not. He then patted ground next to him.

"Sit" he said "Might as well make yourself comfortable."

"Okay."

There was a pause.

"Roderich was always striving for popularity. He was in band and apparently band wasn't cool enough to get you into the elite social circles of my high school. These social circles were mostly made of people who only cared about their reputation, popularity, the latest designer clothes, relationships, gossip, partying, drugs, drinking, etc. Why those kinds of people had all the influence and were looked up to by people like me, I'll never know. Anyway, he wanted to be like them. Literally. He started acting like them. He was so tired of not being popular that he decided to imitate them. We were kind of friends of friends at the time and I told him popularity isn't everything and he should be more concerned with other, more important things. And he didn't believe me and told me that maybe if I was like him , I would be popular. And I told him that I didn't care about popularity and hated the whole "elitism thing" and how the worst kids had the influence in the school and he told me he didn't want to be friends anymore. And I was fine with that. What I wasn't fine with was that he took two of our friends with him and I haven't spoken to them since. And me and the rest of my friends started drifting apart once Roderich had established himself in the "popular crowds". And that incident made me learn not to trust people so now I have trust issues and have no friends here and no one wants to be my friend and I hate that."

There was a silence after that.

"I'm sorry to hear that." said Nikola "Um, I lost a friend to popularity too so I know how it feels and it hurts. And I was wondering since you are alone, maybe you would like to be friends with me."

Demitri's expression did not waver from suspicion.

"That is very kind of you but, I should warn you about me."

"Is it bad?"

Demitri laughed hollowly.

"No, it's just why I have trouble making friends. I have bad trust issues and social anxiety, always have. As you know, I don't have any friends, unless you count Arthur Kirkland, but he's my RA and I lost most of my high school friends. Also, no offense, but are you and Roderich friends?"

"No, we're just lab partners. He's not the type of person I would want to be friends with anyway. So, since you now know that, would you like to be friends? Or at least try? That way you won't be alone all the time."

Nikola knew he was making zero sense but he really hoped Demitri would take him up on the offer. He felt so bad for him and he seemed perfectly harmless, not a blood sucking vampire like all the rumors said. Still, the fangs were pretty convincing so he couldn't blame them for thinking that.

"I'd have to think about it." said Demitri finally.

"Okay…" said Nikola. "When will you know?"

Demitri shrugged.

"I don't know. I'll find you when I do. Where do you live so I will be able to find you?"

"Oak Hall, second floor, room 250. My roommate's name is Eduard Von Bock in case I'm not there."

"Okay. See you."

And with that, Demitri left.

Nikola sat in his dorm room thinking about Demitri while trying (and failing) to distract himself with the Internet. He understood about him having social anxiety and all that but he didn't understand why he needed to "think about it". Looking at the clock he noticed it was eleven and decided to go to bed even though tomorrow was Saturday. He couldn't fall asleep, thinking of what Demitri had said that day and just thinking about him in general. At around three in the morning, there was a knock at the door, waking Nikola up. He opened the door and came face to face with a very nervous looking Demitri.

"Did I wake you up? I'm so sorry!" he said noticing Nikola's messed up hair and half asleep expression.

"It's fine, Eduard usually doesn't go to bed on the weekends 'til about now and the glow from the screen can keep me awake. What's up?"

"Um….I just wanted to let you know that" he took a deep breath "I accept your offer of friendship."

Nikola laughed.

"What?"

"You make it sound like a freaking marriage proposal!"

"Oh. Well, I wasn't sure how else to say it so I decided to go with that."

"I'm glad you came. I thought maybe you were just blowing me off."

"No, you seemed pretty truthful so I decided to give you a chance. Also, you're the first person here to approach me and ask me to be friends so I thought: what have I got to lose? Either I gain a friend or if it doesn't work out, I go back to being alone. I'm used to it by now."

A silence fell between the two.

"So, um, out of interest why are you here at three in the morning? I'm not accusing you or anything." He hastily added seeing the look on Demitri's face.

"I wasn't sure if you went out on the weekends and when Alfred goes out, he comes back around now so I thought maybe you were the same."

"I don't go out."

Demitri considered that.

"Okay, well, I wasn't sure so I thought I'd give you the benefit of the doubt and wait."

"That's kind of you. I just hope you didn't stay up unnecessarily."

"It's fine, I was woken up by Alfred and his drunken friends coming in anyway."

Another silence happened until Nikola blurted out:

"Um…would you like to do something together tomorrow? It's Saturday so I don't need to get my homework done urgently."

"Sure! What would you like to do?"

"The mall? I don't what you usually do…."

"I'd love to! I once went by myself and got lost so it'll be nice to have someone with me!"

"Okay…so I'll text you tomorrow when I get up."

They had already exchanged numbers for the Freshman Composition assignment.

"Good night Nikola! Looking forward to tomorrow!"

Good night Demitri."

And as Nikola closed the door, and got into bed, he wondered what the heck he had gotten himself into.


	3. Chapter 3

Joy Ride Chapter 3

"Okay, so where do you want to go?" asked Nikola.

They were standing by a mall directory. Looking at it, Nikola could see how Demitri got lost. This mall was huge and there were barely any directories.

"Hmm…I know! We should go to Build a Bear!"

"Why? That's so childish!"

"So? You're never too old for stuffed animals!"

"Okay, okay."

Nikola let himself be dragged by Demitri.

"So," he said trying to make conversation, "how exactly do you 'build' it?"

Demitri turned around.

"Haven't you been there before?"

"Um…no." Nikola admitted.

Demitri's eyes widened.

"You've never been to Build a Bear?! Now we really have to go! How could you have never been?"

Nikola sighed.

"My parents thought it was a waste of money so I never went."

"That's so unfair. You've been deprived for too long. You need to experience the magical wonders of Build a Bear!"

They soon got to the entrance and walked in. With a start, Nikola realized that he and Demitri were probably the oldest people in the place without kids. He felt embarrassed. Demitri, on the other hand, could care less.

"So, the first thing you do is pick out an animal." said Demitri who was clutching a dragon.

"There's so many to choose from." said Nikola. "Why a dragon?" he asked indicating Demitri's dragon.

Demitri looked at it.

"I love dragons! I've always wanted one so this is the closest I'm going to get. I'm going to name him Silverlord!"

"But he's not silver, he's green!"

"But it's such a good name….!"

Nikola got a bear, more generic. Then they stuffed them.

"What's his name going to be?" asked Demitri as he petted his dragon happily.

"I don't know…I'm not very good with names. Where did Silverlord come from? "

"Fantasy name generator. I was bored…and if I had a dragon, I would probably name him that. Oh, now we have to make birth certificates!"

Demitri, of course, was done with his in about two minutes. Nikola had filled out all the information, except for a name.

"I still can't think of a name." he said.

Demitri looked at the bear.

"You can always name him later. We should go soon so we can go somewhere else. I want to go to Barnes and Noble."

"Sure."

The two paid for their stuffed animals and then found themselves in the center of the mall. Without a directory.

"We're lost." said Nikola.  
"When I got lost, it took me a half an hour to find my way. But then again, I was by myself."

After about twenty minutes of complete disorientation, Nikola was relieved to see the Barnes and Noble sign.

"Is there anything in particular you're looking for?" asked Nikola.

He was the type who couldn't go shopping unnecessarily; he had to know what he was getting and go with a purpose.

Demitri thought for a moment.

"Well, there's this book that I want to get about composing magic."

"Magic as in magic tricks? Like magicians?"

"Yeah." said Demitri.

The store was crowded as they walked in. Nikola decided to look at the magazines since he didn't have anything else to do while Demitri got his book.

"Did you get it?"

"Yeah."

Something about Demitri's tone and facial expression was off. As though he was hiding something. Nikola decided not to press the matter any further since: a. he still didn't really know Demitri and b. he still got the feeling that Demitri wasn't completely comfortable around him and if he asked, he wouldn't open up. But Nikola was curious and if Demitri wasn't going to tell him, maybe he would have to find out for himself.

It was 9:00 at night and Nikola was completely bored. He had exhausted all possibilities of entertainment and was currently lying on his bed, wondering if he closed his eyes for long enough, would it be morning? Just as he closed his eyes, his phone rang. He looked up and saw that it was a number he didn't recognize.

"Hello?"

"Dude! You've got to help me! This is urgent" came the voice on the other end.

Nikola sighed. There was no mistaking the voice; it was the obnoxiously loud voice of Alfred Jones.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt? Is Demitri hurt?"

"Just come to the room! Use the passageway! HURRY!"

Nikola ran through the passageway, wondering what made Alfred sound so desperate. When he got to Bedford second floor, he saw Alfred sitting on the floor outside of his and Demitri's room.

"What's wrong?" Nikola asked, panting.

"Demitri's lost it." Alfred said.

Nikola was confused.

"What?" he asked.

"Lost it. Freaked out. Mental. Crazy. Flipped a shit. You get the idea."

"Okay. Why aren't you helping him? You're his roommate after all."

"Um…." said Alfred

Nikola scanned Alfred's face. There was something he had never before in Alfred's eyes. Granted, he barely knew Alfred, but this was serious. Comprehension soon dawned on him.

"Wait….you're afraid of him!" said Nikola

"Am not!" said Alfred immediately. "I just think it would be best if you dealt with him. You are his friend after all."

Nikola sighed at Alfred's crappy excuse.

"Fine. I'll try to convince him to calm down. But you're going in there first."

Alfred's eyes widened.

"You are his roommate after all." said Nikola with a smirk.

Alfred slowly opened the door and went in while Nikola waited outside. He looked at his watch. It was around 11. He was usually in bed by now. He sighed again, wishing he could be there instead of dealing with his potentially psycho friend.

Alfred appeared outside the room.

"You can come in now."

He was visibly shaking.

"Thanks for going in first." said Nikola

"No problem. The Hero is afraid of nothing!" Nikola was glad to see the old Alfred back. As he opened the door, he let out an audible gasp. The entire room was in shambles. Clothes were scattered everywhere, a lamp was on the floor, chairs had been overturned and there was a strange burn mark near Alfred's bed. Demitri was nowhere in sight.

"Demitri?" asked Nikola, his pulse quickening.

There was no answer. Nikola looked everywhere in the small room and had to conclude that Demitri had left. He then noticed the open window.

"Oh God." He said to himself.

Nikola found himself walking towards the forest at the end of campus with a flashlight. Demitri had to be on campus, he couldn't have gone home. And he had seen Demitri here once before so he might be here again. Nikola had been walking for almost an hour. He had never been here before and every noise seemed to be magnified ten times louder. But being scared wasn't going to stop him from finding his friend.

"Demitri?" he called out.

Again, there was no answer. Nikola kept going. He soon reached the absolute edge of campus, where it tapered off into residential neighborhoods. Relief overcame him when he saw a figure sitting against a tree. It had to be Demitri.

"Demitri?"

Demitri turned around.

"What?" he asked as though it was perfectly normal for him to be here.

"I've been looking for you for almost two hours! Where were you?!"

Demitri shrugged.

"Here."

"Why?"

"I felt like getting away from everyone."

Nikola sat down next to Demitri and looked around. The forest was still creepy. He couldn't understand why anyone would want to come here.

"What happened?" he asked, turning to Demitri, "You seemed so happy this morning and then Alfred showed me the room and I don't understand what happened in between."

Demitri sighed.

"I guess it just hit me that I'm weird and that no matter how hard I try, I'll never be normal."

"What do you mean?"

Demitri looked up at Nikola.

"Remember that interview where I met you and I said I was a descendent of vampires and I'm a sorcerer?"

Nikola thought for a minute.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Did you ever think that it could be true?" asked Demitri, not looking at Nikola.

"No. I thought you were maybe a theatre major and just playing the parts of a descendent of vampires and a sorcerer. I'm a logical person and that seemed to make sense."

Demitri raised his eyebrows but still didn't look at Nikola.

"Well, I hate to break it to you but it's true."

"You being a theatre major? You're certainly at a good school for it."

"No," said Demitri impatiently "Me being related to vampires and a sorcerer."

An awkward silence fell between the two.

"So…" said Nikola in a desperate attempt to break the silence, "Do you sparkle in the sun?"

Demitri rolled his eyes.

"No, I don't. And for the record, I hate _Twilight _so let's pretend you never asked me that."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to insult your…people?"

"It's fine. Just don't do it again."

They lapsed into silence again. Nikola looked at his watch and with a start, realized it was almost one in the morning. He had never been up this late before.

"Demitri?"

Demitri turned around.

"Yeah?"

"It's one in the morning."

"So? It's Saturday, Alfred's usually out until three."

Nikola sighed. There was no way to get around this was there?

"Look, you were honest with me so I'll be honest with you. I go to bed at around 11:30 on the weekends. I just get bored and tired. So this is the latest I've stayed up."

"Fine with me." said Demitri.

"No, you don't get it. I'm tired so can we please go back?"

Demitri grinned.

"Sure. I'll lead the way."

And Demitri, having been in the forest before did lead the way out. As soon as the two got back on the main campus, he stopped abruptly leading Nikola to almost crash into him.

"What's wrong?" asked Nikola, his voice full of concern.

Demitri turned to face him.

"This might be awakward but…" he said, suddenly becoming very interested in a bug crawling on a leaf, "can I sleep in your room? I just really don't want to face Alfred and his drunken friends."

Nikola had no idea what to say to that.

"Sure." He blurted out without thinking.

Demitri's face lit up.

"Really? All right! Where do you live? I couldn't really tell when I came that time because it was dark."

"Oak."

"The one with the two person suites that all the early decision kids get? Lucky!"

They walked over to Nikola's dorm and soon came to his room. Nikola unlocked the door and they both stepped in, Demitri gazing in awe and how much space Nikola and his roommate had.

"My roommate had brought a cot in case any of his siblings came to stay over so you can sleep on that." said Nikola.

"Okay." said Demitri.

Personally, he would have rather slept in Nikola's bed. It wasn't attached to the side of his room like Demitri's, it was on the floor and bigger and looked way more comfortable. But, Nikola was already doing him a huge favor and he probably shouldn't ask for more. They both got ready for bed and Nikola dragged the cot into his room and looked for the spare set of linens for it. Once he found them, they made the cot up into a bed. They both climbed into their respective beds.

"Good night Nikola and thank you." said Demitri sleepily.

"Good night." said Nikola.

Before he drifted off to sleep, he had one coherent thought:

What the _hell _was he getting himself into?


	4. Chapter 4

Joy Ride Chapter Four

Author's Note: For those wanting to know when the story starts/takes place, I would place it around October when students like Demitri have accepted the fact that they're in college but haven't really gotten used to it yet. Just for clarification.

The first thing Nikola felt when he woke up the next morning was something heavy pressed up against his back. At first, he just ignored it and fell back asleep. When he next woke up at eight thirty (Nikola was unable to sleep much later than that, even on weekends), the heavy thing was still pressed against him. He turned around and almost screamed. Demitri was the object pressed up against him. Nikola couldn't remember ever letting him sleep in the bed with him; that's why he had turned the cot into the bed. He sighed, not wanting to start a Sunday with an argument over nothing and climbed out of bed.

The thing that bothered Nikola the most was that he didn't do anything to stop Demitri. He also didn't understand what Demitri was intending to do. On the one hand, Demitri could be wanting to take their- what Nikola assumed was friendship- farther and on the other hand, since Demitri suffered from social anxiety, he couldn't picture him wanting to potentially ruin their friendship.

Nikola decided that the best course of action was to act like nothing had happened. Eduard wouldn't be coming back until this afternoon so at least he didn't have that to worry about. Suddenly, he heard a stirring from the bed.

"Good morning." He said.

Demitri yawned and nodded. He then looked at the clock.

"Shit." He said.

"What?" asked Nikola. "It's only Sunday. It's not like you're missing anything, everyone's most likely still asleep."

"No, it's not that. My neighbors, Quentin and Drake, they're my friends as well, are visiting today and if Quentin saw this he would get the wrong idea and I'd be completely humiliated. I should go." He said, throwing his stuff in his bag.

Nikola didn't know what to do so he just stood there. Why would this so called Quentin get the wrong idea?

"Why would he get the wrong idea?" he asked.

Demitri sighed.

"Quentin can be….a little overbearing. Like, he can be kind of smothering. "

He sighed again, deciding whether or not to say this.

"Quentin is bisexual so if he heard I slept with a guy…even though we obviously didn't have sex or anything…he would still think I'm either gay or bisexual and I really don't want to have that conversation with him. It would be so awkward. But Drake, his brother, at least balances him out. He's a lot like you. More normal which is a relief."

"Oh…that would be awkward." said Nikola.

He really couldn't think of anything else to say.

Demitri smiled.

"It would." He agreed.

There was a knocking on the door. Demitri and Nikola looked at each other.

'I'll get that." said Nikola.

He opened the door to reveal two young men, one blond with an almost bored expression and one brunette who looked much livelier.

"I'm Quentin." announced the brunette, holding out his hand, which Nikola reluctantly took. "And this is Drake." He said indicating the blond.

"Hey guys." said Demitri almost sheepishly. "How did you find me?"

"Well, we had to wake up your roommate who looked really hung-over who said you spent the night with a friend and he gave us the room number and dorm and we had to wait for someone to let us in, Drake wasn't able to pick the lock. And the guy who let us in was pretty hot but then we realized he was drunk and just trying to hit on us for no reason, so we then lost him and walked around until we found this room. And luckily you were where he said you would be!" said Quentin.

"I'm Nikola but the way." said Nikola trying to diffuse the awkwardness that followed that monologue.

"You could have warned me you were coming." said Demitri, almost accusingly.

Drake finally spoke up.

"We did." He said, pulling out his phone. "We texted you twice and then tried calling you but it seemed that your phone was off. "

"We hope we weren't disturbing you." said Quentin, teasingly.

Demitri face palmed.

"That's what I was afraid of." He said.

"Anyway," said Quentin. "We weren't exactly sure what we would be doing while visiting you so maybe you could come up with something?"

"The mall? Isn't there a big mall around here?" asked Drake.

"We just went yesterday." said Nikola.

Poor Demitri was too mortified to come up with something.

"Bowling?" suggested Quentin. "That way we could all get to know each other!"

"I already know you Quentin." said Demitri, speaking to the floor. "And I already know Drake."

"Well, we don't know Nikola and it is a good bonding activity."

"I don't think I need any more bonding with you Quentin." said Demitri under his breath.

An hour later, after an extremely awkward brunch in the dining hall which included Drake burning himself on the toaster, Nikola found himself next to Demitri in the back seat of Quentin's car. He had no idea how this was going to go but he desperately hoped it wouldn't be as awkward as it had been back in his room. Drake didn't seem so bad, he was just quiet which was the complete opposite of his older brother. Quentin on the other hand, wasn't obnoxious, but Nikola could tell he thought he and Demitri were in a relationship with his not so subtle hints. While it did look as though they were, Nikola really couldn't see himself actually dating a guy like Demitri. Heck, he couldn't even see himself dating a guy. However, he had never been in a relationship before so he couldn't really picture himself dating at all.

Twenty minutes later, they were at the closest bowling alley to the school and got shoes.

"So who actually wants the bumpers?" asked Drake.

Nikola had forgotten that Drake could talk; he had said nothing during the ride over. Demitri was also unusually quiet.

"Me?" said Quentin. "Because then we won't have to see that I suck at bowling."

Drake rolled his eyes.

"How about for the first game we use the bumpers and then for the second we don't?"

Everyone agreed on that compromise and they got started. Quentin wasn't terrible without the bumpers but he certainly wasn't great. Drake had managed to get a strike and two spares and Demitri was trying not to enchant the bowling ball so it would help him win. Soon, Nikola found himself alone with Quentin.

"You two seem very close." said Quentin as he tried to find a ball that was purple but wasn't sparkly.

"I guess so." said Nikola. This wasn't a conversation that he wanted to have; especially with Demitri's "interesting" neighbor.

"So how did it start?"

"How did what start?"

Quentin looked up as he finally found a purple ball (his favorite color was purple).

"Your relationship."

Nikola was confused.

"You mean us being friends?"

Now Quentin looked confused.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you two were together."

Now Nikola understood what he was getting at.

"You thought we were dating?" he asked incredulously.

Quentin looked sheepish.

"Yeah…?"

"We're not. I wouldn't date someone who looks like a freaky vampire with red eyes and fangs who could probably magically kill me if he wanted to. I also wouldn't be with someone who is out of style and wears a ridiculous tiny hat with ribbons on it. I mean, he's weird and sorry to say this but, I think he would have a hard time finding someone who would want to date him!"

Then, Nikola suddenly realized that Demitri hadn't come out of the bathroom and that he had probably hear everything.

"Damn it Quentin! Why did you provoke me?"

Quentin looked as though he had been slapped across the face.

"It's not my fault man; you did that of your own accord. And Demitri's probably pretty upset with you. If he heard that, that is, and he probably did."

"I'm doomed." Nikola moaned.

The silent drive back to campus was one of the longest drives Nikola had ever experienced. Demitri and Drake had exchanged seats so now Nikola was next to Drake in the back seat. This confirmed Nikola's suspicions that Demitri had heard everything. He sighed, not knowing what Demitri was going to do. Obviously he was going to think Nikola hated him, which Nikola couldn't blame him for thinking that, and probably avoid him. How was Nikola going to convince Demitri that he really didn't mean what he said?

Later that night, Nikola was still thinking about the dilemma he was in. What had come over him? What that really what he thought of Demitri? Did he say that because he secretly had a crush on Demitri? What happened? He decided it wasn't Quentin's fault and he could see why Quentin thought they were in a relationship; they did spend a lot of time together. It was almost 9:30 and Nikola still hadn't decided what he should do. He would have to talk to Demitri but he wasn't sure how. Suddenly, the answer came to him. A letter in Romanian! Demitri would appreciate that Nikola took the time to learn his country's language. With the help of various translators, Nikola had the letter written in about an hour and a half. He went over to Demitri's dorm and slipped the letter under his door. Now all he had to do was wait and see how Demitri would react. He hoped Demitri wasn't too superficial and that his attempt at an apology letter written in Romanian would help. After all, it was the best thing he could do. When Eduard, his roommate came back to the room at night, Nikola had drifted off into an uneasy sleep, praying that Demitri would accept his apology. After all, he didn't want to lose him as a friend. The answer would hopefully come tomorrow and Nikola would hopefully get his friend back and repair their somewhat fragile friendship.

**Author's Note(IMPORTANT!): **I'm not exactly sure what sort of conflict I would like to have in this story or way to keep the plot going. I've been doing this on a chapter by chapter basis so far and feel that that approach might not work in continuing the story. So if you have any ideas on some sort of conflict or way to keep the story moving, please PM or leave a review. By the way, it has to include Roderich and/or Elizabeta because I introduced them as enemies of Demitri and I feel like something should happen between them otherwise there is no point in them being in the story. Thank you for your support and reviews!

MagicMusic7


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